Alma Mata is currently confirming our list of inspirational, expert speakers. They will be listed here as and when we confirm their attendance.

Prof David Mabey, Professor of Communicable Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

David Mabey is Professor of Communicable Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. After training in the UK, he went to work at the Medical Research Council unit in The Gambia, West Africa in 1978, and was in charge of clinical services there from 1982-86. He first joined LSTMH in 1986, and was made Professor of Communicable Diseases in 1994. Most of his field work has been done in The Gambia and Tanzania, with a particular interest in trachoma and the relationship between HIV and STIs.

He is an Honorary Consultant Physician at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in London, and has been Director of the Wellcome Trust Bloomsbury Centre for Clinical Tropical Medicine since 1995. He is Director of the WHO Collaborating centre for the Prevention and Control of Sexually Transmitted Infections at the School, and is also a member of the WHO Global Alliance against trachoma.

In addition, Prof Mabey ran the DTM&H course at the School from 1988 to 1996 and set up the MSc course in Sexually Transmitted Diseases with colleagues at UCL. He currently teaches on the DTM&H course and the MSc in Tropical Medicine and International Health, and is Chair of the Examination Board for that course.

Carolyn Miller, Chief Executive, Merlin

Carolyn has more than 20 years experience in international humanitarian and development work. She has lived and worked in countries affected by conflict, including Nicaragua and Mozambique, and has managed a variety of large international programmes. She is currently chief executive of UK medical relief charity Merlin.

Dr Tom Lissauer, Consultant Neonatologist, St Mary’s Hospital and Honorary Medical Advisor in Child Health, THET.

Dr Lissauer has published books on paediatrics, neonatology and clinical medicine, and has worked in Asia and Africa. He is also the UK coordinator of a nascent Health Link between St Mary's and the Faculty of Medicine at the National University of Rwanda.

Dr Rosie Wellesley, GPVTS trainee, Royal London Hospital, UK.

After being refused permission to defer for a year, Rosie gave up a run-through training post to spend a year working in Zambia, combining clinical work with teaching at Lusaka Medical School. As well as having her submission to the Tooke report published, she wrote about her experiences in Zambia here.

Dr Jonathan Fluxman, GP in Paddington, London and Steering Committee member for Medical Justice.

Originally from South Afria, Jonathan now combines full-time work in an inner-city general practice with clinical work for Medical Justice.

Dr Rhona MacDonald, Senior Editor, The Lancet

Dr Rhona MacDonald is currently Senior Editor at The Lancet. Rhona joined The Lancet two years ago and is heavily involved in driving the journal’s global health work. She also sent up the Lancet Student in 2007 to encourage students around the world to get involved in global health. Rhona is a medical doctor, graduating from Aberdeen University in 1992, later specialising in paediatrics, primary care, and public health.

Rhona has worked in several low and middle income countries and has worked for the international non-governmental organisations Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) and Oxfam. She has also previously worked as a medical editor at the British Medical Journal, including being the editor of BMJ Careers and senior editor of the Student BMJ.

Dr Gilles de Wildt, Medact Trustee and GP
Birmingham, UK.

Currently a GP in Birmingham, Gilles previously worked in hospital care, public health and epidemiology in Southern Africa and the Netherlands. He teaches, presents and publishes on global health issues, with emphasis on economic policies, trade, health and equality. Current interests include privatisation of health care and global access to medicines, pharmaceutical R&D and patent regimes. 

He is a trustee of Medact and has represented Medact and other non-governmental organisations at international events , including meetings of UN institutions on health and trade issues.  He is a member of the Health Inequalities Standing Group of the RCGP .

Dr Sudeep Chand, Public Health Adviser, Global Health Team, Department of Health.

Sudeep is a Public Health Specialist Registrar on secondment at the Department of Health. He is heavily involved in the implementation of Health is Global, the UK Government's Global Health Strategy.

Sudeep is a medical doctor, graduating from Imperial College in 2001, later specialising in psychiatry and public health.  He has worked in northern Nigeria on an immunisation programme run by DfID and Save the Children UK.  He also spent one year as an honorary research fellow at UCL's Centre for International Health and Development, during which time he wrote on human resource and global governance issues, and was a contributor to Global Health Watch 2.